Coleman $1 Toll Proposed

State Could Move By End Of Year

March 01, 1989|By BOB KEMPER Staff Writer

GLOUCESTER POINT — State transportation officials could impose a $1 toll on the George P. Coleman Memorial Bridge as early as sometime this year, Del. Harvey Morgan told York and Gloucester officials Tuesday.

Morgan, R-Gloucester, said he and Shirley Cooper, D-York, met with state transportation and finance officials last week and were told they are considering the toll along with a reduced 60-cent commuter fee on the bridge.

The money raised by the tolls - about $100 million over 20 years - would be used to build a new crossing, Morgan told Gloucester and York boards of supervisors, who met to discuss whether they should be working together to find money for a new crossing.

The groups left the three-hour dinner meeting without reaching a consensus on forming a transportation district, a mechanism that would allow them to plan for highway improvements and raise money to pay for them, either through tolls or a gas tax.

York officials supported forming the district to work on many transportation concerns other than the bridge, including work on Route 17, which connects to the bridge.

"There are things the transportation district can do that we can't do individually and the highway department doesn't have the money to do," York County Administrator Daniel Stuck said.

"We have to begin to talk in unison about transportation," Jim Funk, chairman of the York board, said.

But Gloucester officials were divided over the proposal.

Gloucester Supervisor Wil liam E. Belvin questioned why York officials would be concerned about the bridge since its main use was to get Middle Peninsula commuters to the Peninsula. He suggested that York caused many of its own transportation problems because of its zoning along Route 17, and said it should work with other communities on the Peninsula to solve those problems.

Burton M. Bland, chairman of the Gloucester board, questioned where the district would get money to operate. Although other officials have said there may be state money available to support it or that its costs would be minimal, Bland said, "I've never seen anything that was free."

Gloucester Supervisor Benjamin F. Seawell Jr., however, supports the measure. He said, "We need to have a cohesiveness between York County and Gloucester and maybe our neighbors to the north. ... A transportation district may not be the sole answer, but it's certainly a beginning."

The state is considering building a new crossing between the Middle Peninsula and Peninsula to relieve rush-hour congestion on the Coleman bridge.

The main obstacle now is finding the money to pay for it. Tolls have been mentioned as a way to pay at least part of the multimillion-dollar cost.

The Commonwealth Transportation Board would have to approve the tolls before they can be imposed, Morgan said. If they were established, as many as six toll plazas could be installed, he said. The bridge last had a toll in 1976.